Jesus Christ is called "the only begotten Son of God" (John 1:18; 3:16,18; 1Joh.4:9). No creature in the entire universe, but He, can say by God Himself to have been begotten and thus, by birth to be the Son of God; and this without the intervention of a man. In Luke 2 we read:
34 Yet Miriam said to the messenger,
"How shall this be, since I know not a man?"
35 And answering, the messenger said to her,
"Holy spirit shall be coming on you,
and the power of the Most High shall be overshadowing you;
wherefore also the holy One Who is being generated
shall be called the Son of God.
In the well-known Messianic, second psalm, reference is made to this Son. This Psalm is about the Anointed One (:2; lit. Messiah) Whom God has made King over Sion (:6) and Who will receive all the nations as His allotment (:8). In verse 7, the Messiah, Himself is introduced as speaking and saying:
Let me recount the statute of Yahweh:
He has said to Me,
My Son are You;
I, today, have begotten You.
Is not this remarkable? The Messiah declares that God has said to Him: "I, today, have begotten you." What day was that? The day of his conception in Mary? Can a fertilized ovum grasp "the decision of Yahweh"? No, the expression, "today begotten", must logically relate to a later time. And that is exactly what the apostle Paul, declared in the synagogue of Antioch (Acts 13),
32 And we are bringing to you the evangel
which comes to be a promise to the fathers,
33 that God has fully fulfilled this for our children
in raising Jesus,
as it is written in the second psalm also,
My Son art Thou; I, today, have begotten Thee.
The "today" in Psalm 2 does not refer to the day of Jesus' conception, but to the day of His resurrection: God begat (raised) His Son from the dead! On that day, He was not begotten to be the Son, but as being the Son. To be the Son, He was begotten in Mary; but as being the Son, He was begotten (raised) in the cemetery garden.
———————————
Translation: Peter Feddema
